


Bright

by time_fliestime_dies (orphan_account)



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: ADHD!Ginny, F/F, Flowers, Girls in Love, Highschool AU, Non-Graphic Rape/Non-Con, deaf!Luna, internalized ableism
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-29
Updated: 2016-07-29
Packaged: 2018-07-27 14:13:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,126
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7621564
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/time_fliestime_dies
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Ginny is passionate and awkward and insecure and just trying to figure out life, really. Luna is understanding and lonely and loves her.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Bright

**Author's Note:**

> Idk what even this is, so reviews and con-crit are welcome :) sorry not sorry abt the angst. also, ginny is bi af and probably has a celebrity crush on gwenog jones. signing is in italics.

It was almost-funny in seventh grade chemistry when Professor Snape asked Luna Lovegood a question and she signed it out with her hands, and Snape just gawked.

It was almost-funny in eighth grade History when strange Loony Lovegood disrupted class to chat with a hummingbird outside her window.

It was almost-funny in ninth grade maths when Professor Mcgonagall's voice rang through the classroom, loud and clear, instructing Miss Lovegood to put away her pastel-colored pens and _try to focus_ for once.

In tenth grade, it stopped being funny. Not even almost.

On the second week of class Ginny, for whom new clothes and her mother's careful tailored hand-me-downs became non-existent in order to pay for her father's hospital bills, for her mum to get a job. Ginny, whose ADHD medication became too expensive ("it's okay, Mom, really, plenty of people make-do without meds).  
Ginny, who had gotten sick of the mean, hateful snickers ages ago, feels something putrid stirring inside her as two boys confront Loony after class, throwing mocking words at her strange, mismatched clothes, her signing, the way she drifts off so frequently.

Loony can't hear them, of course-but bullying comes across clear as day in any language.

Last-year-Ginny, small in her brothers' shadows, would have tugged at the waist of Ron's too-small maroon corduroys self-consciously and walked away.

This-year-Ginny is done with being small. She straightens her back (she really is quite tall, taller then her mum by now, and Percy, Fred, and George), tosses her long orange-red braid, and taps one of the boys on the shoulder.

He turns around. "Hey-"

She swings. Ker- _smack_.

His friend glares, then runs when he sees the look on Ginny's face.

Ginny turns around. Loony Lovegood is there, staring up at Ginny with large, luminescent eyes that could hold the world.

Ginny shrugs awkwardly, and grins.  
_________________________________

It's been two days, and Ginny can't get Luna Lovegood's eyes out of her mind. They've taken the place of her siblings and Gwenog Jones, her favorite footballer-invading her mind as she tries to do schoolwork, chores, writing in her journal. She's borrowed a book on BSL from Hermione.

____________

Luna sees a folded note float onto her desk. She opens it curiously.

  
                                                                  _[unintelligible scribble] To your left_

Her left what? Oh, that other word must be look, mustn't it?

Luna looks.

In the seat across from her, Ginevra Weasley grins and waves. Her hand is covered in sloppily-drawn pastel flowers. She reaches into her bag and tosses Luna a gel pen.

_________________________

  
A week, five smiles, and two notes later, Ginny leaves her table with Colin and Neville and Hannah and walks over to Luna at lunch.

_"Can I S-I-T H-E-R-E?"_

Her hand motions are slow and awkward, and she relies heavily on finger-spelling, but Luna lights up all the same.

" _I'd be delighted."_ She signs. Ginny doesn't know 'delighted' so Luna repeats it, spelling it out this time. " _D-E-L-I-G-H-T-E-D"_

Ginny grins and sits down, sliding her lunch tray onto the table.

_"You're G-I-N-E-V-R-A."_

" _G-I-N-N-Y."_

The conversation is slow, and difficult. Ginny is nowhere near fluent and gets distracted and frustrated with herself every time she can't understand and Luna has to write something down, but they communicate enough to make each other laugh.

_______________________________________

Ginny practices over the weekend-reads her sign-language book before bed and in-between chores, getting angry at herself when she can't concentrate and forgetting chores and homework and football practice when she hyper-focuses. Ginny shakes it off and gets Hermione to practice with her whenever she comes over.  
Hermione thinks BSL is fascinating. Ginny never would have, before she started getting to know Luna.

When Ginny gets to school on Monday, Luna is waiting for her. Luna smiles with her whole face. Ginny wonders how she didn't know that before.

" _I made something for you!"_ Luna signs, face bright. She thrusts her books at her interpreter, a posh, impatient woman named Fleur, and rummages through the large quilted bag slung over her shoulder, a look of triumph coming across her face as she finds what she's been looking for.

It's a necklace-a bunch of gel pen caps in different colors, threaded together by a thin gold ribbon. It's beautiful and bright and a little out of place, much like Luna herself. Ginny loves it. She signs her thanks hurriedly, heart fluttering in her chest, and slips the necklace over her head. _"It's perfect."_

______________________________________________

 _"Where does your interpreter go in-between classes_?"

_"She wants to take breaks. She has someone she needs to call."_

They're sitting in Luna's bedroom, opposite the window, looking at the sky and the stream and each other. Ginny's signing has gotten better. She's nearly fluent.

It's a peaceful scene, but it won't remain so for long. Indignation is already bubbling in Ginny's mind. You can see it in the way she furrows her brow, pinches her lips together. _"That's not right! You shouldn't let her get away with that!"_

Luna smiles, serene and reassuring. " _I don't mind. It gives us a chance to talk in quiet, just us without anyone listening in."_

Ginny ducks her head, and the flush creeping up her pale neck is painfully obvious, damn her Irish genes. " _I like talking to you."_

________________________________________

Their first kiss is in the library. A dull setting, not one that either of them cares for-but the kiss is anything but.

Ginny is helping Luna with maths, and Luna is helping Ginny with English. (Ginny likes maths-the patterns appeal to her, somehow. They make it easy to forget the outside world and then there's rush of solving a problem and Ginny feels important, and brave)

Ginny leans over to point something out, loose strands from her messy braid falling in Luna's face. Luna giggles and Ginny turns her head in surprise-and they bump foreheads and are kissing.

And it just. It feels so _natural_  that for a moment, they forget it isn't. Not for them.

And then Ginny realizes and pulls away fast, face bright red. "I-i-um-er-"

Luna cocks her head to the side, confused. _"What?"_

Ginny's eyes widen _"Oh right. Bollocks. Sorry. And I'm. I'm. I'msorryforkissingyou."_ Her signing comes out fast and sloppy, and Luna wouldn't be able to tell what Ginny was saying if she hadn't had so much practice.

Luna frowns. " _Didn't you want to?"_

 _/"Oh-I-yes but-"/_ Ginny stammers, awkward and flustered and thoroughly lost.

 _"I did too."_ Luna smiles, smoothing back a piece of Ginny's hair. " _Could we do it again?"_

It takes a moment to for it to sink in. That Luna wants-that she- . _"Yeah! Yes. Definitely. I-"_

Luna leans forward and pulls Ginny in for another kiss.

______________________________________________

"Have you heard that Gwenog Jones is resigning? I can't believe it! I mean, Colin's told me the rumors of course, but I-"

"Ginny. Focus."

"Right. Sorry. Of course." Ginny takes a deep breath, tugging at the ends of Charlie's old football jersey, and clears her throat. "Luna. Erm. I, er, I was wondering if you wanted to go to prom? With me? As a couple?"

Opposite Ginny, sitting on her bed in-between stacks of books, Hermione sighs. "That's the most articulate you've come up with in hours. We're gonna go with it."

"It's just so awkward, practicing in _front_ of someone, you know? And I just-this is NOT how I usually am! Okay? Okay."

Hermione gives Ginny a Look. "Okay."

Ginny sighs.

"Now, practice it in BSL."

____________________________________________

Luna looks gorgeous when Ginny picks her up for the prom, and she's got flowers drawn in her hair, and she presses a kiss to Ginny's hand when they dance, and god- _damn_  Ginny is way too bi for this.

____________________________________________

They're on the hood of Ginny's car-well, Ron's car also, technically, but it's Ginny's night tonight.

They're on the hood of Ginny's car, in all it's old, peeling glory, in a field somewhere between the town and the school and Ginny's house, and she and Luna are holding hands and stargazing and Ginny is cold as  _fuck_  in her tux (well, Harry's tux. He wore jeans and a t-shirt as an act of Teenage Rebellion or some shit) but she won't admit it for the world, because Luna looks like she's seeing magic, and she keeps pointing out her favorite constellations, and kissing Ginny's forehead, hand, cheek so lightly, so casually that it makes Ginny glow inside-like they've been a couple for years, instead of two teenagers who got together a month ago and still haven't made anything official.

Ginny wants to ask. But the small part of her still lingers, and she is afraid. _Luna deserves better_  the small part of her thinks. _Better then some lazy, scatter-brained girl who can't even buy her a decent birthday present._ And she can't do it. She just can't. So she taps Luna's shoulder, signs that they should get going soon, or their parents will worry that Luna and Ginny are in danger. Or having sex. Or in danger because they're having sex. You could never tell, with parents, even chill ones, which Ginny's mum was most certainly not. Luna's father, on the other hand-

And Luna knows what Ginny is doing. She always seems to, some how. _"Ginny."_

_"I know, it's...I know."_

____________________________________________________

Ginny's maths teacher, Mr. Riddle, holds her back after class. To talk about her falling grades, he says. He knows a way she can improve her grade, he says. He kisses her, thin, spidery fingers creeping up her blouse, under her skirt.  
Ginny freezes, and hates herself. Hates herself for being able to hold her own on the football field, for being able to punch the pricks bullying Luna, but not being able to push him over and run as far away as she can.

She is frozen.

She waits for him to finish, waits for him to leave, then walks stiffly to the cafeteria. It feels like everyone is staring at her. Like everyone knows. She feels disgusting, and wrong, and-she can't cry.

Luna is waiting for her. Her brow furrows in concern when she sees Ginny. _"You O-K?"_

Ginny smiles with a wobble and nods, tightly. _"I'm fine."_

She gets in bed when she comes home, and doesn't come out. Not even to eat. When her parents come home from work, when Ron comes home from Harry's house, she tells them she's sick.

____________________________________________________  
  
On Thursday, her mum has time to check Ginny's temperature and sends her to school.

Ginny doesn't say anything.

  
____________________________________________________

In the hallway going from English to History, she sees him. He smirks.  
This time, she doesn't freeze. She runs into the girl's loo and throws up, nearly missing the garbage can in her haste. She doesn't stop feeling sick. She wants to curl up in a ball on the floor and die, but someone is entering the loo and she runs-out the school doors and into oblivion.  
_____________________________________________

Oblivion, as it turns out, looks a lot like Neville's house (she could've gotten Luna and ran, if she wanted, but she can't let Luna see her like this. She's been avoiding the other girl's visits all week.).

Augusta Longbottom opens the door, comforting in a sort of tall and frightening way.

 _"Is Neville here?"_ Ginny signs before realizing Augusta won't understand her. She repeats herself. "I-is Neville here?"

Augusta gives her a long, searching look and holds the door open wider, an invitation to come in.

Neville is in the kitchen, reading a book on botany which he puts down when he sees Ginny. Augusta sits her down at the table, and Ginny tells them everything.

______________________________________________________

Ginny's eyes are red and puffy, and she feels weak in an unpleasant, helpless sort of way, but some of the disgustingness inside of her is gone.

_______________________________________________________

  
He's arrested. Luna tells Ginny, and hugs her tight. Augusta went straight to the school, and they called the cops. Ginny's mum is furious, Luna says, like she wants to murder someone (Tom Riddle).

(Luna is furious, too, but her rage is a soft, steely thing and she has hidden it away in preparation for the right time.)

All of Ginny's brothers are there. They tip-toe around her, unsure, nervous-but Ginny is glad to have them there.

_______________________________________________________

Two months later, Luna and Ginny are sitting in Ginny's back yard, on a quilted blanket, making flower crowns.

(Ginny still can't face school-she does online classes on the old family computer)

(Luna walks the hallways alone, ignores the bullies and sends sharp words and sharper glares towards those who make fun of the Weasley girl)

Ginny taps Luna's shoulder, and presents her with a crown of dandelions and a grin and a question " _Be my girlfriend?"_

Luna's smile is brighter than the sun.

 


End file.
